'It's driving him nuts': Trump lawyer spills about how ex-president is handling trial
The undisputed counterpuncher in Donald Trump is being forced to sit tight with his lips sealed, and it's driving him crazy, according to a prior member of the ex-president's legal team.
Former Trump attorney Tim Parlatore is convinced having to sit silently at trial is making Trump bounce off the courtroom walls.
"I think he's handling it as best as can be expected," the esquire who used to represent the former president told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on "The Situation Room." "I mean, it's you're forcing him to sit there and listen to all this stuff and not punch back; and, you know, his personality — for somebody that is been on top of the world for so many years and is used to hitting back anytime that somebody hits him — to be forced to just sit in that chair for weeks at a time and not allowed to talk; and not even allowed to really comment on it as he would like to afterwards its got to be driving him nuts."
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Parlatore worked as one of the 45th president's attorneys in his criminal confidential documents case currently crawling along in a Florida federal court before he left the team.
He quit following a long-running internal fight with one of Trump’s top aides. He continues to represent other Trump world individuals.
Trump has been forced to remain silent about witnesses, jurors, court staffers, and relatives of the prosecution and judge.
After three weeks of his historic hush money trial where he's pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records to shield six-figure sums he paid to buy the silence of porn star Stormy Daniels after she alleged a brief affair with him — Trump has been found in contempt numerous times and paid fines and even been threatened to be tossed in jail if he continues.
“Going forward, this court will have to consider a jail sanction,” Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan declared on Monday. “Mr. Trump, it’s important you understand, the last thing I want to do is put you in jail. You are the former president of the United States and possibly the next president as well."
Trump's former fixer and attorney Michael Cohen has been a loud critic of Trump and continued aiming his discontent at him while Trump remains hamstrung to respond based on the gag order.
But on Friday Merchan ordered Cohen, who is expected to testify on behalf of the prosecution next week, to quit publicly mocking his former boss for the duration of the Manhattan hush money trial.
Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Joshua Steinglass informed Merchan that he has "repeatedly, repeatedly" told Cohen to knock it off, but he said ultimately prosecutors can't control witnesses.
Merchan then made clear that this was a directive straight from him: "That comes directly from the bench."